Government cuts Opposition Senate questions

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Tempers flared in the new Senate yesterday as the Howard
Government slashed the number of hostile questions it fields each
day and seized more time for soft queries from its own side.

Slamming the move as a "straight grab for power", Labor said the
new question time allocation would take an axe to the
accountability of executive government.

Labor's Senate leader, Chris Evans, said the new formula would
mean 130 fewer questions from the Opposition and minor parties each
year, breaking longstanding conventions.

"This is the first test, this is a sign the Government wants to
abuse its power," he said.

"Everyone knows the Government asking the Government questions
is not a measure of accountability  it's a farce."

But the Government leader in the Senate, Robert Hill, dismissed
the rage from Labor and the minor parties as "the stunt we had to
have".

He said the new formula  which gives the Government up to
two extra questions each day at the expense of others  was
still "more than fair" if judged on the number of senators in each
party. "I am prepared to be judged on this test of arrogance," he
said.

Senator Hill faxed the new carve-up of questions to Labor on
Monday, but did not consult either the Democrats or Greens.

The same plan was circulated by the newly re-elected Senate
President Paul Calvert yesterday morning, prompting Labor's deputy
Senate leader, Stephen Conroy, to call him "the stool pigeon of the
Government" rather than an independent officer of the
Parliament.

The new order would give the Coalition six questions, Labor five
or six, the Democrats one and the Greens one. Family First Senator
Steve Fielding will get one question each Thursday at the expense
of one of the minor parties.

Greens Senator Bob Brown called the new order an "outrage",
saying it was part of Prime Minister John Howard's plan to kill the
Senate slowly with "a few sprinkles of arsenic in the
sandwiches".

"First the fingernails lift a little, then the hair turns grey,
then the teeth fall out. That is the goal of this Government 
to take the teeth out of this Senate," he said.

Democrats leader Lyn Allison said the refusal to consult
revealed a shocking new attitude. Dorothy Dixer questions from
Government senators "make a mockery of this place", she said.

Labor Senate veteran John Faulkner accused Senator Calvert of
incompetence over his failure to consult.

And another Labor heavyweight, former Keating government
minister Robert Ray, quoted himself in 1995 saying, "Questions in
question time should be allocated according to need.

"It doesn't matter whether you have a majority of one or 15
accountability is still an integral part of the Senate
system."